As Geoff Born leaned against the ring of the Lynn Athletic Boxing Club he said: “There are some tearaway boys who everyone can see are headed for trouble."

"Social workers can’t handle them, police can’t handle them, and their parents say they have lost control. So they send them down here. But once they start boxing, they learn modesty, discipline and a respect for others. Because however tough you think you are, in a boxing club there is always someone tougher.”

Mr Born, 78, a former banker who has devoted 50 years to running the Lynn, watched as head coach Sam Mullins put 19-year-old Jay Smith through his paces.

“Boxing has made me calmer,” said Jay, speaking between a sparring session. “My parents split at 15, I left school with one GCSE and I got into bad company. I was angry and directionless and was later sent to prison for attempted robbery. Boxing has become my outlet. I love it and have dedicated myself to it and I have been picked to box for England. It’s my best shot at becoming successful.”

Located in Burgess Park in Southwark, the Lynn was founded 122 years ago and is officially the oldest amateur boxing club in Europe. Frank Bruno trained there before he turned professional, Muhammad Ali popped down with Freddie Starr, a visit recalled by a photo that hangs on the wall alongside fading 1939 programme posters and pictures of former champions who trained there, such as heavyweight Danny Williams who famously knocked out Mike Tyson.

New direction: Jay Smith has been picked for England
The club is attended in the evenings by up to 150 boys and girls, yet in recent weeks has faced closure. The subsidised 10-year lease with Southwark council had expired and it decided to raise the rent to market rates, doubling the club’s overheads to more than £26,000 a year. Mr Born wrote to the Prime Minister, Tessa Jowell and local MP Simon Hughes to ask them to intervene but to no avail.

Now, thanks to a £36,000 grant from the London Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund, the Lynn has been saved. “I cannot quite believe it,” said Mr Born. “This money gives us two years’ grace and saves the club.”

It is one of eight grants amounting to £270,000 that the Dispossessed Fund is giving to charities which transform the lives of at-risk young Londoners.

Competition was fierce with 15 groups shortlisted by our charity partners, The London Community Foundation. The successful grantees were chosen by a panel that included the Cabinet Office, young people and the Evening Standard and will be paid out of the £1 million windfall we announced in November, of which £800,000 came from the Government in response to our Frontline London campaign.

Nick Hurd, minister for Civil Society, said: “Thanks to Frontline London and our support, Lynn Athletic Boxing Club can continue its outstanding coaching and gang-prevention work and give young people a real focus. We have invested in the Dispossessed Fund because we see it as a vital conduit to improve the lives of vulnerable young people.” Grants announced by the Standard in December of £150,000 bring the total disbursement from this £1 million pot to £420,000, helping more than 1,800 young people over the next two years. The un-spent £580,000 will be deployed to support gang-prevention work in Lambeth and two other

boroughs. The latest grant round means that of the £12.2 million raised by the Dispossessed Fund, £6.6 million has been given to 745 groups.

Mr Born described his battle to save the club: “A councillor came down and wagged her finger at me and said, ‘you will just have to charge more per session, £5 for juniors and £10 for seniors’. I said: ‘do you live in the real world?’ We charge £1 and £2 [respectively] per session for a reason. Kids who train here three times a week are on benefits and cannot afford more.”

Mr Born, a retired chief cashier for Barclays, recalled how he had joined the Lynn in 1944 as bombs fell on London, a doodlebug destroying his school. He won the Southwark championships three years running as a teenager, later becoming chairman, treasurer and secretary rolled into one.

Head coach Mr Mullins, 37, son of Pimlico Plumbers owner Charlie, also gives his time. “We got two guys, Darren and Richard, who were members of rival gangs in Peckham and Walworth,” he said. “They were mortal enemies and I read them the riot act. Both have since left their gangs.

“We’ve got a gym full of children of Irish travellers, drug dealers and broken homes, but you are on a level playing field when you enter a boxing club. We don’t judge. We just change lives.”

He motioned to two female boxers. “Ellie there used to be 75 kilos, overweight and no confidence, but now she is 60 kilos and she is so confident I can’t get her to shut up.”

Mr Born added: “This sport turns young tearaways into men. Danny Williams came down as a boy in trouble with the police and learned his trade with us before becoming British heavyweight champion in 2000. I worked out that between our six coaches, we give Southwark council the equivalent of £110,000 in voluntary work a year, yet they don’t value us and were going to close us.”

Mr Born pointed to the ranks of boys pounding the heavy bags, and smiled: “Thanks to the Dispossessed Fund grant, that threat has passed. For these kids, this club is a life saver.”

Lynn Athletic Boxing Club

Grant: £36,000 over two years

What they do: Founded 130 years ago, “the Lynn” is the oldest amateur boxing club in Europe. Geoff Born, 78, its chairman, secretary and treasurer all rolled into one, joined the club as a nine-year-old and has volunteered his services for 50 years, helping to train champions and divert local teenagers from gangs into boxing.

Where: Southwark

How grant will be used: The club faced closure because its landlord Southwark Council has raised the rent from a nominal amount to market rates. This grant ensures its survival by funding rental overhead shortfall for the next two years.